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Wandsworth girl goes viral after World Cup selfie

First published
in News
Last updated
by Sophia Sleigh, Chief reporter covering Wandsworth

The World Cup is sadly over for some but one Wandsworth girl has gone viral after turning herself into the iconic trophy.

Artist, Emma Allen, 33, spent two and a half hours painting herself before snapping a selfie and posting it on the web. In less than 24 hours she received 500,000 web views.

Ms Allen wore a bald cap and painted herself gold

The former Honeywell Primary School pupil said: "I was always artistic but really struggled with the other subjects. I had a teacher Mr McNeil who once introduced me to his class as ‘this is Emma, she can make anything'.

"It was a big title to live up to as a 10-year-old, but it stuck in my memory ever since and I think of it when I feel stumped or need to find inspiration to push myself on."

Ms Allen also worked at the Party Superstore in Clapham Junction and said it taught her a lot about costumes and make-up.

After taking the body paint off Ms Allen was still finding bits of paint she had missed days later and was walking around with golden eyebrows.

Ms Allen without the paint

She added: "The World Cup trophy is such an iconic symbol around the world so I wanted to try and see if I could represent it in face paint.

"I have been trying to persuade friends to model for me for a while but I just kept offending people so I decided to buy a bald cap and have a go on myself."

She said the reaction had been ‘amazing’ and added: "It’s been interesting to see all the different interpretations of the picture.

"It’s also been quite overwhelming; I didn't expect it at all. This was meant to be a trial run to do a proper one on someone else later."